Street life 2017

An array of daytime recordings made along street markets and other gathering-places which are pedestrianised by official design or unofficial habit. Playback of each recording is synced to a simple animation plotting the route taken.

Select a place by clicking on either a yellow spot below or its name from the list further down.

Description: Starting by the stalls on Green Street outside the market building. Traffic on Green Street; voices of shoppers; a trader at a fish stall raises his cry; noise of fishmongers' electric saws; a radio plays at a stall; meat is chopped at a butchers' stall; a large trolley clatters across the concrete floor; rustle of carrier bags; thumps of vegetable crates being shifted at the western end of the market building; a young child's voice; a radio plays at another stall; traffic on Green Street.

Comments: Queen's Market is mainly housed inside a purpose-built hall with a car park on top. Despite it being covered, the market is included in Street Life 2017 for two reasons. First, in atmosphere and appearance it's more like a wholesale market than a spick-and-span shopping centre. Second, its continued existence is largely down to the efforts of local campaigners who successfully resisted Newham Council's plans to redevelop the market into a smaller site surrounded by shops and the inevitable 'luxury flats'. The campaign group, Friends of Queen's Market, is still active and has its own website.